Champagne Bottling

[the_fuzz]

Hey guys,

Did a search and looked at the wiki but could get the answer,

I was thinking about bottling into some Champagne bottles, and this may sound really stupid, but how to you get the cork in?

I want to use corks and the wire stuff - this is ok for beer isn't it? :huh:

I didn't want to go down the "bigger cap" path


Also just to confirm - corked Wine bottles cannot be used to hold beer, can they? <_<

 

[chimera]

short answer - a corker (machine) squeezes the cork and pushes it into the top of a bottle.. much the same as capping really. Can get corks & corkers at plenty of decent homebrew stores.

Wine bottles aren't designed to hold pressurised liquids, just flat table wine. Don't know of anybody who has tried to use wine bottles, and everything I've read has said it's a bad idea.

 

[bconnery]

Hey guys,

Did a search and looked at the wiki but could get the answer,

I was thinking about bottling into some Champagne bottles, and this may sound really stupid, but how to you get the cork in?

I want to use corks and the wire stuff - this is ok for beer isn't it? :huh:

I didn't want to go down the "bigger cap" path


Also just to confirm - corked Wine bottles cannot be used to hold beer, can they? <_<

You need a special capper to do the corks. I'm not sure what they called. But it is emminently doable.

Wine bottles in theory can be but there is discussion about whether they are suitably strong and the general consensus is no...
Something about not being designed for the pressure.

EDIT: Too slow. Damn work

 

[the_fuzz]

cheers guys,

I bought the corker about 6 months ago and then collected about 100 wine bottles. Then it came to me that wine bottle would not be suitable due to pressure.............

However, i didn't realise the corker worked for Champagne bottles too - cheers guys.

 

[brettprevans]

I know you said that you dont want to go down the 'bigger cap' path but its a lot cheaper than buying corks.

 

[Guest Lurker]

You dont need a corker for the plastic corks, just push them in by hand and do up the cage with pliers.

 

[tangent]

AFAIK a wine bottle corker will not apply Champers corks to bottles. Different beast.

 

[kevnlis]

AFAIK a wine bottle corker will not apply Champers corks to bottles. Different beast.

As he said, different cork and you need the wire cage to hold the cork down

 

[ausdb]

Hey guys,

Did a search and looked at the wiki but could get the answer,

I was thinking about bottling into some Champagne bottles, and this may sound really stupid, but how to you get the cork in?

I want to use corks and the wire stuff - this is ok for beer isn't it? :huh:

I didn't want to go down the "bigger cap" path
Also just to confirm - corked Wine bottles cannot be used to hold beer, can they? <_<

You will need a floor corker that is suitable for champagne corks, ie a heavy duty one that can compress the cork sufficiently as when you look at an uncompressed champagne cork the whole thing is the same diameter as the fat bit at the end that the cage fits over. It gets compressed to about half its size to hold the pressure in the bottle plus the cage on top as a secondary measure.

You will also need champagne "punt" type bottles that can withstand carbonation pressure or collect Belgian bottles such as Chimay that are corked in this manner.

The easy way out is to use the plastic champagne stoppers and a wire cage once you have a foil on the top you sort of can't tell the difference!

 

[the_fuzz]

I know you said that you dont want to go down the 'bigger cap' path but its a lot cheaper than buying corks.

I should have explained more - it is for my wedding - i'm getting married next October and I wanted to give a few select people a bottle with label etc

So I wanted to "cork" them

I did mention this to the misses last night for the first time and you should have seen the look...............

 

[the_fuzz]

This is the corker I have

http://www.grainandgrape.com.au/product_in...roducts_id=7952

So, this will not work?

If not, as stated above, can I use plastic ones and do it by hand?

 

[ausdb]

This is the corker I have

http://www.grainandgrape.com.au/product_in...roducts_id=7952

So, this will not work?

If not, as stated above, can I use plastic ones and do it by hand?

Forget it with that corker, they struggle to get a decent cork into a wine bottle you need a heavy duty one of these, as the uncompressed cork is massive.
http://www.weekendbrewer.com/images/clip_image004_0008.jpg
http://www.northernbrewer.com/pics/fullsiz...agne-corker.jpg
But you can just push the plastic stoppers in by hand or with a small mallet, GL did his Chrissy case beer with them a year or so ago

 

[tdack]

Why not ask at your local home brew shop, they may well have a corker you can borrow for a Saturday to do your limited run.

(I know mine up the road will lend a bottle capper if I ask nicely, so you never know your luck)

 

[tangent]

I'd use a cap and wrap it in foil if the look of a cap offends.

 

[Muggus]

A mate of mine got something called a 'tirage' (not sure how its spelt) bell for his bench capper to put caps on sparkling wine bottles. He needed special kinds of caps for the bottles too, but it seemed to work quite well.

 

[the_fuzz]

I'd use a cap and wrap it in foil if the look of a cap offends.

Can you get special foil - like the gold coloured stuff on real champagne bottles?

 

[barls]

try reading here mate this is what ive managed to do
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=12741

 

[deadly]

Or you could try this,not sure who did this one.
Also Randyrob capped and used the heat shrink foil from the HBS and it looked good

 

[luggy]

Does anyone know of a supplier for champagne corks? Just been searching around and can't find a supplier that states use for champagne bottles so thought i'd throw it out there, going to be doing a run of Belgians and like the look of champagne bottles with wire cages. Any help much appreciated

Cheers

 

[barls]

ummm
Belgian Corks (25 pack)
Belgian Cork Wire Hoods (25 pack)